Ex-Warrior JTA always will pri...

SANTA CRUZ – The scoreboard showed the G League United was well on their way to a decisive victory Wednesday night at Kaiser Permanente Arena over Serbia’s BC Mega MIS in the first of two games in the G League Fall Invitational. For Juan Toscano-Anderson, however, the show goes on until the final buzzer – and even after as well.

With the United up by 16 points and only two minutes remaining in their eventual 99-81 win, the Oakland native and former Warriors champion leaked out into the open court off a Mega MIS turnover and had a clear path for takeoff. The runner-up of the 2022 NBA Slam Dunk Contest looked to his right and chose instead to get the fans off their feet for his team-high sixth assist, leaping off his right foot at the free throw line to perfectly toss the ball off the glass for teammate Charlie Brown Jr. to throw it down with two hands.

Wednesday night was Toscano-Anderson’s first game back in Santa Cruz in four and half years, Feb. 5, 2020, to be exact, and he wasn’t going to let the hometown crowd down.

“I like to have fun, that’s why people come to basketball games,” Toscano-Anderson said after the win. “That’s why people come to sporting events, they want to see exciting plays. And as a spectator, if you got a fastbreak, show the fans something.

“That’s what they came to see.”

Attendance was recorded at 1,154 fans, and countless occupants were in the stands to watch Toscano-Anderson. He wasn’t happy with his four turnovers or going 3 of 10 from the field in what was a bit of a sloppy win for a team playing together for the first time.

None of that stopped Toscano-Anderson from taking the time to pose for pictures with children and adults who forever will have fond memories of him on the Warriors, both in Golden State and Santa Cruz.

Toscano-Anderson’s goal in these two games, as well as the United competing in Singapore as part of the 2024 FIBA Intercontinental Cup, is to show why he still belongs in the NBA despite playing only 11 games for the Sacramento Kings last season. He has spent months working with coach Phil Beckner to improve as an outside shooter, knowing his leadership and infectious enthusiasm never will go away. The 31-year-old also always can look back at his own childhood as a Warriors fan, dreaming of the game giving him the life he has strived to earn.

Everything starts with the fans, because everybody was a fan at one point.

“We don’t get paid the money we get unless we have the fandom,” Toscano-Anderson acknowledges. “I just try to keep that energy high, especially in a place like this where people come to support me, come to support me. Just give them a treat.

“They want to see things like that, so I want to reward them.”

Jogging back onto the court during halftime, Toscano-Anderson turned to his son Jadyce, whose first birthday will be celebrated later this month, and blew him a kiss. The love was felt in all ways from everybody.

Around the home of the Santa Cruz Warriors, where JTA made the team at a local tryout in 2018, his jerseys in multiple forms could be seen. There were versions of his Golden State Warriors No. 95 jersey, as well as the Santa Cruz Warriors and even more than one variation of his threads for the Mexican national team.

Basketball has taken Toscano-Anderson all across the world, but Santa Cruz always will hold a special place for someone whose travels with a basketball by his side are far from over.

“The energy, the backdrop, the lights in here – I feel comfortable playing here,” Toscano-Anderson says. “It’s just … it’s home.”